The Commenor Years - Tales Of Danni Quee
by Moogle
Summary: Before she ever came to Belkadan, Danni Quee lived on Commenor for eighteen years, living life while slowly being guided by destiny towards her greater purpose. These are the tales of those years.
1. Tale Zero - And Her Name Is...

Timeframe: NJO  
  
Focus: Danni Quee  
  
Summary: Before she ever came to Belkadan, Danni Quee lived on Commenor for eighteen years,  
living life while slowly being guided by destiny towards her greater purpose. These are the  
tales of those years.  
  
========  
The Commenor Years - A Tale Of Danni Quee  
A Star Wars New Jedi Order fanfiction  
Tale Zero - And Her Name Is...  
By: Moogle (moogle@fanforce.net)  
========  
  
Disclaimer: Danni Quee was created by R.A. Salvatore and fleshed out a bit by some other NJO  
authors. Of course, the galaxy far, far away was created by George Lucas. *hand wave at  
lawyers* This is not the fanfic you are looking for.  
  
***  
  
Lightning flashed outside, casting a shadow of the woman in the room for a brief  
moment, as she sat by the window and watched the rain pour down. The gentle pattering of  
the rain against the windowsill was drowned out for a couple of seconds by a clap of  
thunder, resuming again as soon as the roaring had receded.  
  
She had never been one to like the rain much. Not that the woman did not find that  
particular cycle of nature fascinating, but because rain meant clouds, and clouds meant the  
sky was obscured. With the sky obscured, there was no stargazing, and when she could not  
stargaze, her mind was distracted by less important things. Politics, for one.  
  
Of late, the woman knew, caring about galaxy politics was the 'in' thing, thanks to  
the increasing success of the Rebel Alliance against the forces of the Empire. And the woman  
could not hold it against those who were out celebrating in the streets upon hearing the  
news of Emperor Palpatine's demise at an obscure Rim world, Endor.   
  
The objective part of her mind - her inner scientist - recognized that her disdain   
for politics was mostly influenced by her idiot lover, a bureaucrat. The woman knew she   
might even be out in the celebration with them if not for her condition.  
  
As if to remind her of the blessing and curse she currently bore, the child growing  
inside of her let out a kick. In spite of herself, she smiled, as not even her ire at her  
lover, his chosen field, or the forces of nature could keep her from her excitement that  
she would soon be a mother. Still, neither could that joy contain her anger at herlover  
for being off on some bureaucratic nonsense on the night her child - our child, her mind  
grudgingly reminded her - was going to be born.  
  
"How is it, Miss Quee?"  
  
Startled, she turned around to find a woman who looked to be in her mid-sixties  
standing there. She recognized the midwife and chastised herself for letting unimportant  
thoughts clutter her mind.  
  
"Not time yet, Kari," she replied, giving the older woman a smile. "And I've told  
you before, please call me Marla."  
  
"Of course... Marla," Kari said uncomfortably. The elderly woman was more used to   
being formal than informal.  
  
Not for the first time, she wondered whether she'd have a son or a daughter. On  
purpose, Marla had never tried to find out what gender the child was going to be, preferring  
to be surprised at birth. It was just one more thing that was a point of contention between  
she and her lover. 'As if there aren't enough already,' she thought.  
  
The midwife moved up to stand next to her and gaze out the window as well. "I've not  
seen people this excited about something in a long time," she remarked.  
  
Marla shrugged. "The Empire's not gone yet. I still have to keep my work under the   
sensors. Soon I'll have a baby to protect, too."  
  
"I don't think you will be alone," Kari told her with a kind smile, gesturing with a  
hand to the mass of people celebrating the death of Emperor Palpatine.  
  
"Maybe. Really, I want to be just another face in the- ah, ow, ah! Ah!" Marla's face  
suddenly took on a panicked look as she experienced for the first time - and last, she swore  
to herself right then and there - what it was like to have her water break.  
  
Kari smiled knowingly. As a midwife it was nothing she hadn't been seeing for the  
previous thirty years. "Move over to that bed and let's get to work."  
  
***  
  
Some time later, she would never be quite sure just how later that was, Marla became  
aware of her surroundings again, having recovered from the numerous hyposprays and other  
medicines that were employed to minimize the pain of the entire childbearing process. Of  
course, they did tend to diminish memories of the event, but this was not something that  
gave most people problems.  
  
"Congratulations, Marla. It's a girl." It sounded like Kari was kilometers away.  
How could she be so far away and still know it was a girl?  
  
Marla felt her lips moving, heard herself say, "Thanks." Were she not loaded up on  
medicine she might have mentally kicked herself. But again, it was nothing the midwife had  
not seen before. With a kind smile, Kari handed the baby girl to the mother.  
  
She's so beautiful, Marla heard herself think. The girl had a tiny wisp of blonde  
hair on her head, and green eyes that seemed to already be examining the world. Thoughts  
penetrated the confused haze, and she made cooing noises towards her daughter.  
  
"What will you call her?" The midwife already had a datapad out, though Marla didn't  
know where it came from. Kari was filling out the forms to denote an official birth for the  
Commenor records.  
  
Marla looked at her daughter again and could not help but smile. "Here is a child  
born the day the Emperor was killed. May she never know despair like we have, and if she  
does, may she be part of the effort to remove it. May she be a child of hope. And her name  
is... Danni."  
  
Kari smiled back at her. "Danni Quee. A very beautiful name."  
  
Danni looked up at her mother with wide, admiring eyes that can only be given by a  
newborn baby towards her mother, then fell asleep.  
  
*** 


	2. Tale One - Glowbugs Way Up There

========  
The Commenor Years - A Tale Of Danni Quee  
A Star Wars New Jedi Order fanfiction  
Tale One - Glowbugs Way Up There  
By: Mark "Moogle" Brown (moogle@fanforce.net)  
========  
  
Disclaimer: The writer will not be held responsible if someone decides that this piece of  
fanfiction is copyright infringement.  
  
***  
  
"Mommy!" shouted a three-year-old Danni Quee as she spotted her mother and proceeded  
to bound across the playground at the day care center.  
  
Marla Quee smiled, something that she found herself doing a lot of the time when it  
involved her young daughter. For a woman who investigated the astronomical wonders of the  
galaxy, she was very frequently surprised by such a small part of that galaxy, namely Danni.  
"Hello, my darling Danni," she said as she regarded the girl with a warm look.  
  
Danni beamed in a way that only a three-year-old girl regarding one of her parents  
can do. It was a look full of simple love and wonder, and all sorts of other things that  
weren't as easy to recognize. Then she giggled. "Hee-hee! I'm a darling!"  
  
"You certainly are." The warm look on Marla's face quickly changed to amused. Of  
course, Danni had no idea what it meant to be a darling, Marla knew. The girl was pleased  
for no other reason than that her mother called her something that sounded nice. "Say bye to  
your friends," she continued.  
  
"Bye!" the girl shouted, beginning to wave her arms frantically in the direction of  
the other children.  
  
"Bye, Danni!" called back the dozen tinny voices of the other three-year-olds at the  
Wee Care Day Care.  
  
The waving continued until well beyond when Danni could no longer see any of the  
other children, when she finally realized that they couldn't see her no matter how much she  
wanted them to. At that point, other children might have started complaining, but not Danni,  
who could keep herself busy for hours merely looking at her surroundings, since she was not  
yet old enough to know why things happened.  
  
It was a sight well worth her time to watch, Marla decided. Things like this made  
her wonder what she was like when she was so small. She couldn't remember anymore, and it  
wasn't like those were exactly quiet times in the galaxy anyway. They were quite tumultuous,  
in fact; things were always changing. Marla was fairly certain that was how she came to be  
interested in stars in the first place. Though she may have been spirited from planet to  
planet frequently - why that happened, she wasn't sure - she could always look up and know  
that stars would be there. Maybe not the same stars in the same places, but there would  
always be stars.  
  
But Danni, Danni would not have to have any of those worries as she grew up. Why,  
just last year the Rebels - no, the New Republic, they were calling themselves now - finally  
took Coruscant away from the Imperials. It was difficult to imagine things being so bad  
under this New Republic, although the cynical part of Marla was determined to keep her  
preparing for the worst.  
  
Danni's voice startled her. "What'cha lookin' at, Mommy?"  
  
"Nothing, darling. I was just thinking," replied Marla.  
  
The girl's curiosity was not placated. "About what?"  
  
Marla had to pause to think for a couple of seconds. She wasn't really sure what she  
could tell Danni that her daughter would understand. "My life."  
  
"Why?" Danni continued, with a desire for information much like that which all  
children possess.  
  
Having had little experience with children before her own, though, Marla did not  
know this, and felt like she had to answer the question seriously. Thinking about it threw  
her for a loop, because she didn't know why she was thinking about her life. "I don't know,"  
she told Danni.  
  
"Aw, you're no fun," Danni whined. She skipped ahead of her mother and pouted until  
a couple of birds flew past her. Danni squealed and chased after them, what had grown of her  
blonde hair bouncing behind her as she ran the clumsy run of a three-year-old.  
  
The woman sighed and wondered not for the first time what she had done to deserve  
the privilege of raising a daughter so full of life. An annoying voice in the back of her  
head reminded her that if it weren't for that sniveling excuse of a man, Castor Rodan, then  
she never would have given birth to Danni in the first place. But considering how low her   
opinion of the politician was, it was not a very hard task to banish the thought of his   
existence from her mind.  
  
After a couple of minutes, Danni came moping back towards her mother. "I couldn't  
get the birdies," the girl said mournfully. She sniffled a couple of times.  
  
Marla may not have been a mother long enough to know about child curiosity, but she  
had survived Danni being two, so she could well sense when a tantrum was on the way. This,  
she knew, was a tantrum in the making.  
  
"That's okay, Danni dear. Birdies are better off flying free," she told Danni. Given  
Danni's earlier predisposition to asking questions, she was prepared to explain that further  
if necessary.  
  
But Danni just said, "Okay!" Her face brightened immediately.  
  
It was nice to spend time with Danni, but Marla noticed from the sun's position that  
it was starting to move along in the day and she had things that needed to be done.  
  
"Let's get home," Marla told Danni.  
  
"Home! I like home," the girl said, her green eyes twinkling.  
  
Marla smiled at her daughter. "Me, too."  
  
***  
  
Rays of light shone through the kitchen window of the Quee residence, the last that  
the sun of Commenor had to offer for that particular day before retreating below the trees,  
and eventually to the other side of the planet.  
  
She put away the last of the dishes she and Danni had used for their evening meal  
earlier. Marla knew that she could have afforded a servant droid, if not a sentient servant,  
but she wasn't interested. Being self-sufficient was the way she was brought up, and she  
intended to teach the same to Danni.  
  
"Pretty," the girl whispered. Danni had been following her mother around a lot of  
late. She was standing off to the side of her mother, right in the light shining in to their  
home and sparkling on the floor.  
  
That statement Marla could not deny, but she also knew that compared to the sky at  
night-time, watching the sunset was like staring at the hindquarters of a Hutt. "The sky at  
night is even prettier." She had never let Danni stay up late enough to see the night sky  
before, but now was as good of a time as any.  
  
"I wanna see!" exclaimed Danni, bouncing back and forth across the floor excitedly.  
  
"If you're a good little girl, Mommy will let you stay up and watch with her," Marla  
said gently, knowing full well the effect her words would have on Danni.  
  
"I am a good little girl," Danni protested. She punctuated this point by dashing  
across the floor and clinging onto her mother's leg, then smiling cutely up at her. "See?"  
  
Marla decided that maybe sending Danni to day care was a bad influence. She'd  
certainly never seen her daughter pull a stunt like this before. But then, she didn't mind  
much, as she wanted to let Danni look at the stars anyway. "I guess," she said, pretending  
not to believe her daughter though she actually did.  
  
The girl put on her best whining voice. "Please," she begged.  
  
"You can go, on one condition. You have to let go of my leg, so I can walk."  
  
This made Danni start giggling, but she let go and continued following her mother as  
they walked through the residence to get a blanket. Once that was found, they headed outside  
for a reserve within walking distance. Marla carried Danni there, then set her down so they  
could both find a suitable patch of grass.  
  
As Marla flicked out the blanket, it billowed softly in the gentle breeze, flapping  
and straightening before landing on the grass. Adorned on it was a symbol whose identity she  
had never known; all she was ever regarding it was that it was very special, and that was  
just her grandmother in old age.  
  
Danni knew of none of this, of course, as she was not yet old enough to grasp the  
concept of a grandparent, let alone the concept of someone who was no longer alive. She  
happily leapt down on the blanket as soon as it was done falling, rolling around and  
laughing madly.  
  
It had been perhaps fifteen minutes since they were in the kitchen, but it was still  
plenty enough time for the sun to have set. Fortunately, it was a cloudless night, and the  
view of the stars in the sky was clear.  
  
The woman watched with a bemused grin as she saw Danni flopping around on the  
blanket, knowing that in short order Danni would notice the sky and grow quiet. This  
happened no less than five seconds later.  
  
Laughter melted away into the depths of the night, the last echoes of Danni's  
playing fading out, and she was absolutely speechless. The girl stared, completely rapt, at  
the darkness of the night sky.  
  
"What are they, Mommy?" Danni pointed up at nothing in particular.  
  
There was no doubt in Marla's mind what her daughter meant by 'they'. "They're  
called stars, Danni."  
  
A few seconds passed before Danni said anything; she was too busy staring at the sky  
to register the comment right away. "They look like..." the girl started, but trailed off  
when she could not think of the words. A few more seconds passed, then a grin crossed her  
face. "I know what they look like. They look like glowbugs, way up there!" Danni loved  
glowbugs.  
  
Marla kept quiet for a couple of minutes while Danni's inquisitive green eyes  
scanned the entire night sky. When it looked like her daughter was done, she said, "I get to  
look at stars every night as part of my job."  
  
She could almost hear Danni's jaw drop the ground. "Really?" an excited Danni asked.  
  
Marla simply nodded. "If you want, when you're older, I'll let you help."  
  
This seemed to excite the girl more than Marla had ever seen. Her daughter jumped  
straight from the ground into her arms, wrapping her little limbs around Marla. She made no  
effort to move.  
  
"I love you, Mommy," whispered Danni.  
  
"I love you, too, Danni dear," Marla whispered back.  
  
The sounds of their voices were slowly replaced with the sounds of night on  
Commenor, the gentle whirring of power generators, hovercars buzzing far off in the  
distance, the noises made by insects in the trees. As Marla stared up at the sky,  
remembering a similar moment she and her mother had once stared, she noticed that Danni's  
breathing became heavier. The girl had fallen asleep.  
  
Slowly she stood, not wanting to disturb her daughter. Unable to fold up the blanket  
with Danni slung over her shoulder, she flipped it around the two of them like a cloak, so  
Danni would not get cold before she was put in her bed.  
  
The cadence her shoes made on the ground added to the sounds of the night.  
  
It took a bit longer to make it home than it did to walk to the park, since she was  
carrying Danni, but this did not bother her.  
  
Danni continued to sleep soundly as her mother placed her in her bed, tucked her in,  
and kissed her good night.  
  
With Danni asleep and the house to herself, Marla went upstairs to where she kept   
her telescope pointed at the sky and sat down in the chair below it. Through it she looked  
at those glowbugs in the sky, and even thirty years later her sense of wonder was no less  
than the first time she looked at them.  
  
*** 


	3. Tale Two - Knowing Without Knowing

========  
The Commenor Years - A Tale Of Danni Quee  
A Star Wars New Jedi Order fanfiction  
Tale Two - Knowing Without Knowing  
By: Mark "Moogle" Brown (moogle@fanforce.net)  
========  
  
Disclaimer: People way richer than me own a lot of the things in this story, but since they  
are so nice they don't care.  
  
***  
  
"Mommy!" shouted a five-year-old Danni Quee as she bounded into the foyer in the  
Quee residence. The bag the girl carried went flying over against the wall as she threw her  
arms out wide.  
  
Danni's mother turned and smiled at her, though she made no move to get up from the  
reclining chair she sat in. The girl knew that was because soon she would have a new baby  
sister, although she didn't understand why or how. "I'll tell you when you're older," her  
mother kept telling her.  
  
"Hello, sweetie," replied Marla as Danni leapt onto her to kiss her on the cheek.  
"Be careful, dear, you don't want to hurt your sister."  
  
Danni gave an emphatic shake of her head indicating the truth of the statement. "No,  
ma'am."  
  
The woman motioned for Danni to sit down in a chair next to her. Danni complied.  
  
"Why don't you tell me about your day at school?" suggested Marla.  
  
Briefly, Marla considering tuning out Danni while she was relaying the events of the  
day. She had practice with it, after all, considering how often she found herself dealing  
with politicians, and was good enough that she could even pick up on important bits of   
monologues without actually paying attention. But it didn't feel right to do it to her own  
daughter.  
  
Her daughter absolutely bubbled. She recounted the mundane events of the day with  
animated gestures, smiling the entire time as she told Marla all about the teacher praising  
her, the boy who would not behave, her schoolwork and how she'd finished it all before she  
left the school and had none to do at home.  
  
The smile was infectious. Marla smiled back.  
  
Danni continued to prattle on about what she'd eaten for lunch - which Marla knew  
already since she'd packed it, - about how one of the other students said she was really  
smart. Her eyes were lit up the entire time.  
  
"...and that's what happened at school today," the girl concluded.  
  
Marla reached over and mussed her daughter's hair a bit. "Do you want to go out and  
play with the other girls and boys?"  
  
Danni pursed her lips and considered for a moment. She smiled and nodded. "Mm!"  
  
The door chime rang. "Go get the door, then you can clean up and go outside," the  
woman said.  
  
"Okay!" Danni beamed as she ran over to answer the door. It opened to reveal an old  
lady whom she didn't know very well.  
  
"Hello, Danni, how are you today?" Danni had seen the old lady a few times before,  
mostly in the last few months. The lady was about seventy years old, she knew, and came over  
to see her mommy. And she remembered the lady's name was Kari.  
  
"Good afternoon, Miss Kari. I am doing fine," the girl said with a smile, trying her  
best to be polite. She offered a clumsy curtsy.  
  
A smile crossed the old woman's face. It would be just like Marla to teach her  
daughter how to speak politely but forget to teach how to curtsy. "Can I speak to your   
mother, young lady?"  
  
As it turned out, that step was unnecessary, since Marla recognized the voice.  
"Kari!" the pregnant woman called out. She propped herself up with one elbow and waved with  
her other hand.  
  
"Don't get up, I'll come over there." Marla was about to get up to try to walk over  
to where Kari was standing, and so earned the rebuke. Kari crossed the space and sat down in  
a chair next to her 'patient'.  
  
Danni followed her over, but was waved off by her mother. "You can go clean up, then  
go outside when you're ready, sweetie." Danni didn't think much of this, so she grinned and  
skipped off.  
  
As she retreated towards her bedroom, she caught a couple of pieces of the   
beginning of the discussion between her mother and the lady.  
  
"How is it?" the lady asked softly.  
  
"Why do I let him do this..." she heard her mother say, somewhat angrily, before she  
passed out of earshot.  
  
Being five, Danni held little interest in grown-up talk, even if she could  
understand of it, which she couldn't. All she knew was that it was boring and time she spent  
listening to it would be better spent changing out of her school clothes and into play  
clothes.  
  
It took Danni a couple of minutes to change; she was not quite yet an expert at  
dressing herself, or finding and picking out clothes to wear. She knew well enough what she  
liked, just not where to find it. When she emerged she was wearing a plain navy shirt and  
pants.  
  
Neither of the adults paid her any attention as she made her way out of the house.  
This was no surprise to Danni, as more than one adult never paid her any attention, or any  
children, because that was just what adults did, even her mommy. As she passed, she ended up  
hearing more fragments of the conversation.  
  
"...Rodan doesn't know?" Kari was finishing.  
  
"Of course not, and I intend to..." her mother replied.  
  
The name Rodan sounded somewhat familiar to Danni, but she put it out of her mind.  
Whoever they were, if her mother didn't want him to find something out, then he wouldn't   
find out. With that thought, Danni walked out of the Quee residence.  
  
***  
  
Right across the way was the playground where Danni and some of the other children  
went to spend time after their school was out. Danni knew her mother would have been proud  
if she were watching; Danni crossed only after looking both ways for approaching speeders.  
It was not a necessary precaution, this time. The day had not progressed far enough for the  
business folk to be on their way back to their homes.  
  
Danni noticed that there were several other children there already. This did not  
surprise her when she thought about it. She knew that she had been delayed some by the  
arrival of her mother's friend - no, midwife, she reminded herself. Whatever a midwife was.  
Danni didn't even know what a wife was, let alone a midwife.  
  
"Hey, Danni! C'mere!" a girl's voice called out. Without looking, Danni knew it was  
a girl she knew from school, Rachelle.  
  
She looked up and waved back at Rachelle, who was sitting on one of the swings.  
Danni walked over to join her when suddenly there was a sharp pain in her head and suddenly  
things started flashing in front of her eyes.  
  
She saw herself swinging next to Rachelle, then Rachelle saying, "I'm going to go  
home and get a drink." She saw a bad man lurking by a speeder. She saw the bad man   
approaching Rachelle on the way home. She saw Rachelle, bruised, bloody.  
  
They were very disturbing things for Danni to see, because she knew as she saw them  
that they weren't happening right now, but they just felt... real. Far more real than  
anything Danni had ever experienced before in her life. She did not know it, but it was a  
very sheltered life.  
  
Danni realized that she must have stopped in her tracks, that there must be a  
shocked expression on her face, because her friend came running off the swings at her like  
a pack of Stormtroopers were chasing her.  
  
"Danni? Hey, Danni! Are you okay?" Rachelle was over next to her now, and she nodded  
as she tried to catch her breath. "What happened?"  
  
"I... I don't know." This had never happened to Danni before, where something had  
come along that she could not begin to try to explain in her curious child's mind. And she'd  
never felt so scared either.  
  
Of course, Rachelle knew none of this. "Let's go play, Danni!" She grabbed Danni by  
the wrist and dragged her off to the swings.  
  
A child's mind is at times a liability. Most of these times are when things call for  
them to be well-behaved, and the well-meaning curiosity of the child simply interferes with  
things. It can also be a liability when trying to scold a child, or impress some other sort  
of lesson upon the child.  
  
But for this same reason the mind of a child is a blessing. Because no matter how  
grim something may appear, it will not bear much thinking for a young child, whose curiosity  
will naturally take over and shift thought to less dark subjects, whether or not the child  
might actually want to think about something else.  
  
Fortunately for Danni's sake, despite her intelligence that seemed to be far above  
the average five-year-old, she still had the typical mind of a child, and playing on the  
swings with her friend was plenty enough to take her mind to other things. Like being a  
five-year-old girl and playing with her friend.  
  
Seconds turned to minutes, minutes to half an hour. The strange experience Danni had  
was out of sight and out of mind. She looked over at Rachelle, who was slowing down on her  
swing.  
  
"I'm going to go home and get a drink," the other girl said. "Do you want one?"  
  
Things all came crashing down in the front of Danni's mind. She gulped and shook her  
head, too unsettled to even respond verbally. Rachelle did not notice this.  
  
Danni's swing came to a halt as soon as Rachelle turned and walked away. She tried,  
oh, did she try, to put what she had seen out of her mind. She was frightened more than she  
had ever been, would ever be for a long time to come. Even so, she might have successfully  
ignored the feeling.  
  
Just then, a speeder pulled up near the playground, a speeder that looked so  
familiar that it increased the sense of dread Danni was experiencing. That feeling tripled  
when she saw the bad man from her vision get out of the speeder and fall into step behind  
Rachelle.  
  
Part of Danni wanted to scream, part of her wanted to cry, part of her wanted to run  
home, to never go outside again, to forget all of this. None of these parts were at the  
forefront, however. The biggest part of Danni knew, somehow, that she was the only one that  
could stop what she had experienced from coming true. She took off running towards her  
friend, too scared to scream anything, but too scared to stay in place.  
  
Time seemed to slow for Danni. She ran, as fast as her little legs would take her,  
towards where her friend was standing. The bad man sped up and grabbed a hold of Rachelle.  
Rachelle tried to scream but the bad man covered her throat. The bad man tried to put  
Rachelle into his speeder.  
  
Someone screamed "THAT MAN IS A BAD MAN!" A mother of one of the children turned to  
look and saw what was going on. Danni realized that she had been the one to scream. The  
mother reached into her purse and pulled out something. The bad man had his back to Danni,  
to the mother.   
  
A red bolt shot past Danni, struck the bad man in the shoulder. The bad man spun   
around, letting Rachelle fly. Rachelle hit the ground and started to cry. Danni reached  
where Rachelle landed. She felt the tears running down her cheeks.  
  
Time returned back to normal. The other children were all crying for their mommies  
and daddies. Parents were showing up all over the place, including Danni's mother, with a  
fussing midwife in tow insisting she should not be on her feet.  
  
Rachelle looked at her through tear-filled brown eyes. She hadn't even been crying  
long enough to have bloodshot eyes. "Th-thank you, Danni," she whispered right before she  
started sobbing.  
  
Danni muttered something back. It might have been "You're welcome," but then again  
it might not have been. She felt the arms of her mother around her at the same time she saw  
Rachelle's mother reach Rachelle and start comforting her.  
  
Danni expected her mother to say something to her, or start asking her questions,  
right then and there. But instead she sent the midwife home and brought Danni back inside  
before Danni ever even looked like something was on her mind.  
  
***  
  
They were inside a couple of minutes later. Marla did not yet know what had gone on,  
but she was expecting her daughter to lose her composure at any second, and she was actually  
quite surprised that it had not happened yet.  
  
"What happened, Danni?" she asked softly. She was sitting in her chair from earlier,  
reclining again, and Danni sat in one of the other chairs.  
  
At first Danni looked confused, as though she was considering which of two answers  
to give. Marla made a note of that for afterwards.  
  
"Rachelle was going to get a drink." Danni's voice was barely a whisper. The  
outburst was coming soon, Marla knew. "I saw... I saw a man get out of a speeder, and he  
looked like a... a bad man. He went after Rachelle and tried to take her into his speeder,  
and I wanted to get help, so I screamed, and then..."  
  
Tears streamed down Danni's cheeks, and Marla reached out. Danni caught on and came  
over to embrace her mother. Marla made soothing noises and gently ran fingers through  
Danni's hair.  
  
She already knew what had happened after that. Her years as an astrophysicist had  
taught her nothing if not to be observant. One of the mothers across the playground had  
pulled a hold-out blaster and nailed the man, though where she got the gun and how she  
learned to shoot it so well, Marla wasn't sure she wanted to know. Another thing she'd  
picked up on over the years was when it was better not to ask.  
  
There seemed to be a pause in Danni's sobs. Marla looked down at her to find that  
Danni was staring at her intently, working her lips. "What is it, sweetie? Is something  
wrong?"  
  
Slowly, Danni nodded. "I saw it happen... before it happened. I was walking there  
and things started appearing in front of me, and I saw the bad man, and Rachelle, and I... I  
knew Rachelle was going to get hurt if I didn't do anything..." Danni grew quiet, looking at  
her mother's face to see if she could find some answer, any answer.  
  
Marla's countenance was steeled into an unreadable expression. She had been hoping  
this day would never come, but expecting it all of the same.  
  
"Danni," she began with conviction, "it's time I told you something about you and I.  
We're both special, you and I and only a few other people. I don't know what exactly it is,  
but I know that we're special." That last part was a lie. She did know very well what it  
was, but she also knew that Danni would be better off figuring it out on her own, as she had  
figured out from her own mother what was going on. "Some times, you might see things. Other  
times you might just look at someone and know that something is going to happen to that  
person.  
  
"It's like you know things, without actually knowing them."  
  
"Should I pretend they aren't there?" Danni asked innocently.  
  
"No," Marla snapped immediately, startling Danni. "No," she said again, softer. "It  
is very important that if you feel like that again, you do what you did. What makes us  
special, makes that happen to us, and it wants us to know that we need to do something."  
  
"What is it?" Danni wondered. Marla could see the tears had stopped, that the  
child's curiosity had taken over, which was probably for the better.  
  
"I don't know." It hurt to lie to her daughter, but she knew that Danni was better  
off not knowing right now.  
  
"I can't wait to tell Rachelle!" exclaimed Danni.  
  
"No!" Marla snapped, louder than before, startling Danni worse than before. "This  
has to be a secret between you and I and nobody else. A lot of people out there don't like  
special people, and if they knew about us they would want to hurt us. You don't want us to  
get hurt, do you?"  
  
Danni shook her head obediently. "But why would they do that?"  
  
"I don't know, Danni... I just don't know." replied Marla, glad that she could  
answer and tell the truth for once. It hurt her that she had to explain things like this to  
Danni when she was so young, but it had to be done.  
  
"Mommy, I'm tired."  
  
Marla knew she was supposed to stay in the recliner or Kari would get mad at her,  
but exceptions had to be made, like when her daughter wanted to take a nap after she was  
very frightened. She walked with Danni into her bedroom, tucked the girl under the covers,  
and kissed her on the forehead. Danni was asleep before she was out of the room.  
  
Once she was back in the main room, Marla flicked on the holoprojector and had on  
some old holos, but she wasn't watching them. She was far too busy wondering about things.  
  
Wondering whether the events of the day were ordained to happen, and if so, how long  
they had been. Wondering if Danni told anyone else before Marla told her not to - she didn't  
think so. Wondering if her next daughter would be special, too.  
  
Most importantly, she was wondering what her own mother would think about how she  
had told Danni that she had Jedi heritage.  
  
"She'd be proud," Marla said to no one in particular. A smile crossed her face just  
then, and that was how she fell asleep. With a smile on her face, and dreaming of long-gone  
good times.  
  
*** 


	4. Tale Three - Paternal Revelations

========  
The Commenor Years - A Tale Of Danni Quee  
A Star Wars New Jedi Order fanfiction  
Tale Three - Paternal Revelations  
By: Mark "Moogle" Brown (moogle@fanforce.net)  
========  
  
Disclaimer: The Star Wars universe was made for people like me to play in. Cracking down on  
fanfiction makes Baby Jesus cry.  
  
***  
  
"Mommy!" exclaimed an eight-year-old Danni Quee as her mother walked in through the  
front door of their residence. As she always did when either she walked in and saw her  
mother, or when her mother walked in.  
  
Normally Marla Quee would love to embrace her daughter in a hug, except this time  
she was carrying a couple of containers with food in them, that she had just gone out to  
purchase. "Hold on, there, Danni. Let Mommy put these down first," she told her daughter.  
  
Danni bobbed her head cutely in the affirmative. Even eight years after she was  
born, Marla still thought that everything Danni did, Danni did cutely.  
  
"Mommy!" came another shout, higher pitched. Marla looked up to see three-year-old  
Norra, her younger daughter, bounding towards her with every bit of the enthusiasm that  
Danni had just displayed.  
  
Marla thought that she was going to end up with a three-year-old attached to her  
leg. Fortunately, Danni intercepted the younger girl and they both waited for the groceries  
to be placed down to pounce on her.  
  
Watching it all from where the two girls had been just seconds before was Kari, who  
had gone from midwife to babysitter in the years after the younger Quee sister was born,  
when Marla made some important discovery at her work and suddenly was called to work more,  
even to go places. Which was not something that the girls minded; they loved their mother,  
but they could still have plenty of fun with another adult, even one who was over seventy  
years old.  
  
Not surprisingly, Kari was smiling over at Marla. It was something she seemed to do  
a lot. At times, Marla wondered what Kari thought of her as. She didn't know much about the  
old woman, just that when Marla needed a midwife, she had come across Kari, and the  
friendship that started then had yet to be extinguished. Marla smiled back.  
  
The girls left her alone as she set what she was carrying down on the countertop,  
although she could tell from both of their expressions that they were quite eager to  
continue with the daily ritual. Before she knew what hit her, a child was clutching onto  
each one of her legs.  
  
"Did someone slip caf into your system? You're certainly hyper today," she said as  
she looked down at her children.  
  
Danni started giggling, and Norra soon followed suit. 'Monkey see, monkey do,' Marla  
thought to herself with a chuckle.  
  
"I'm going on a field trip tomorrow!" Danni exclaimed.  
  
"Field trip! Field trip!" echoed the younger girl.  
  
Marla amended her earlier thought - Danni wasn't the only one who did everything  
cutely.  
  
"And where are you going on this field trip?" the woman asked. She figured it was  
probably something like an animal refuge, or maybe a stop at a local garrison. She didn't  
see Kari grimace.  
  
"We're going to the capital, and we're going to watch the legislators!" Danni   
continued in her bright tone, her eyes sparkling. Just when Marla thought it could not get  
any worse, her daughter added, "The Senator to the New Republic is going to be there!"  
  
The only thing that kept even some semblance of the smile on Marla's face was that  
she could detect that Danni was excited about this. Danni would not understand why this  
would make her fret, she knew. Her daughter could not possibly know why announcing that the  
Senator would be there would be a bad thing. Then, her daughter had never met Castor Rodan,  
either. Why, the only thing that could make it worse would be if-  
  
"We're going to get to meet him, too!" Danni said a few seconds later, suddenly  
remembering something that she had forgotten.  
  
There was no keeping the smile on Marla's face anymore. Not when the care she had  
taken to insulate her daughter from the scum that was Danni's father... and Norra's father.  
A very small part of her grudgingly admitted she was more angry at herself than anything.  
But at least she had Danni and Norra.  
  
Danni was giving her mother a curious look. She couldn't know what was upsetting her  
so much, and doubtlessly she wanted to.  
  
Before Marla could say something, Kari winked at her. "Do they need chaperones,  
Danni?"  
  
The older girl blinked, unrecognition obvious in her eyes. "What's a chaperone?"  
  
"A chaperone is a parent who goes along on a field trip," Kari explained.  
  
Realization dawned on Danni. "Oh! Yeah, they need parents, they keep telling us to  
talk to our parents but I kept forgetting!"  
  
Marla smiled a bit at this. It would be just like Danni to forget something like  
that, being too busy with something else. Work for school, probably. Fortunately, Danni was  
not yet old enough to try to figure out motivations of those around her.  
  
"What do you think, Danni? Mind if I come along?" Out of the corner of her eye she  
noticed Kari smile and slip out of the house.  
  
"It'll be lots of fun, Mommy, I promise!"  
  
"Fun, Mommy, fun!"  
  
The innocence of her daughters made her smile a bit more, even if most of her  
thoughts were hatred of the highest degree directed against one Castor Rodan. "Then I'll let  
the guys at work know I will be out tomorrow."  
  
Danni beamed at her, which meant Norra beamed at her not long after.  
  
'Ah, the innocence of children...' she thought.  
  
***  
  
School was an institution that Marla Quee had never had the opportunity to  
experience due to her childhood on the run. Neither had she gotten much of an impression  
about what it was really like in Danni's few years in school, because all she found out was  
what Danni told her, a point-of-view that was inevitably skewed by the simplistic mind of a  
child.  
  
Needless to say, she was a bit taken aback when she arrived with Danni in tow. Then  
again, that was partly because it was more as though Danni arrived with her in tow.  
  
Organized chaos was the only phrase she could think of to describe the scene she  
was witnessing. Kids looking like they ranged from ages five to ten bustled all about the  
front of a ferrocrete building. A few adults - teachers, she figured - moved through the  
crowd to get into the school building. Most of these adults seemed to be women her age, she  
idly noted.  
  
The kids were bouncing around, moving in all directions at once, seemingly, yet all  
the while moving towards the doors of the building. Even Danni was moving towards it,  
surprisingly enough. Despite being taller than everyone there, Marla was afraid she'd get  
swept up in the insanity, seperated from Danni.  
  
'And to think, Danni goes through this every day!' she thought to herself.  
  
Danni, as if reading her thoughts, turned back and noted, "It's not usually this  
crowded. I think it's because of our field trip. We're here a little later than usual, too."  
  
It had taken Marla a bit longer than anticipated to get Norra awake and over to   
Kari's house. An oversight on her part, she knew, and she felt bad about it, though Danni  
didn't seem to care one way or another. Marla knew that was likely because she was too  
excited about her upcoming field trip.  
  
A couple of minutes and at least a couple hundred moving-yet-unmoving children  
later, Danni dragged Marla through the doors of the building. "Come on, Mommy!" she called  
over her shoulder. "My class is this way!"  
  
Danni led her down a corridor that seemed to at least be mostly populated by  
eight-year-olds. Storage containers of some sort lined the walls, a few kids putting things  
in them or taking things out of them. Lockers, Danni called them. Speaking of Danni, Marla   
was surprised that she hadn't seen anyone she knew yet and said hello. She might need to be   
talked to about being social later. Marla filed that in the back of her head.  
  
"Hi, Rachelle! Hi, Christi! Hi, Jenna!" Danni waved to three girls in succession as  
they passed.  
  
Then again, Marla decided, maybe she didn't need to talk to Danni about being social  
after all.  
  
The room that Danni brought her to was at least something like what she had pictured  
in her head. In the far corner of the room stood another woman, whom Marla was convinced was  
younger than herself, fiddling with a console at her desk. As she punched things in,  
instructions appeared from a holoprojector that was mounted in the ceiling. There was a  
wooden desk with storage space and a chair for each child. Most of the children were already  
in the room and seated. All of them turned to look at Marla as Danni and she entered.  
  
'At least it looks like those New Republic types are good for something,' she  
thought to herself.  
  
While Marla took in the sights, she didn't notice Danni taking her seat, nor did she  
notice the young teacher approach.  
  
"Excuse me, are you Miss Quee?" the teacher's voice startled her.  
  
She turned to get a good look at the teacher. A petite woman, with unruly brown hair  
contained with a single braid, was looking at her with inquisitive brown eyes.  
  
Marla grimaced at being called 'Miss' before nodding in the affirmative. "Please,   
just call me Marla."  
  
The other woman regarded her with a knowing look. "I'm sorry. I hate being called  
'Miss', too. Except by the kids." She grinned, then held out a hand. "By the way, I'm  
Tessarin Molen. But please, call me Tess."  
  
Marla shook the offered hand. "It's a pleasure to meet you."  
  
"Pleasure's mine," Tess told her. Then she raised an eyebrow and looked Marla up and  
down. "Wait a minute... Marla Quee, the astrophysicist?"  
  
The older woman grimaced again, then held out her hands in an 'I surrender' gesture.  
"You caught me."  
  
Tess nodded eagerly. "If you don't mind, could we maybe talk some time? I'm a big  
fan."  
  
By then, Marla was beginning to wonder if it was worth her trouble trying to shield  
Danni from a certain politician, if she had to put up with this. Then another part of her  
mind berated her and reminded her that in the grand scheme, this wasn't all that bad.  
  
Marla nodded back to the woman. "That's fine. I enjoy discussing my work." Which was  
true, anyway.  
  
The teacher gave her another nod, then turned to address the class. "Class, are you  
ready for our field trip today?"  
  
A chorus of assents came back in reply. Tess continued in a tone that was both  
patronizing and patient. "Everyone say hello and thank you to Miss Quee, Danni's mother, who  
is going to be joining us today."  
  
"Hello and thank you, Miss Quee," the students - all except for Danni - said as one.  
Most of the students then turned their eyes to Danni, who blushed from the sudden scrutiny.  
  
Tess cleared her throat and all of the students immediately returned their attention  
to her. "I'm going to go over our rules and procedures one more time, just to make sure  
nobody forgets, okay? I don't want any incidents like the wildlife preserve with Stu and  
Jef."  
  
Scattered giggles crossed the room, and two boys sunk into their chairs. Marla  
grinned at picture she imagined to cause such a rebuke - two young boys running and  
screaming away from a large animal. She didn't know how close to the truth this picture was.  
  
"We will all go on the hoverbus to the capital. Once we're at the capital, WE WILL  
ALL STAY IN THE BUILDING. We will all listen to all announcements on the intercom, most  
importantly the one that tells us to leave and go find our hoverbus, which we will all ride  
back here. We will all listen to anything that tour guides and other adults, like Miss Quee,  
tell us, and we will be polite. Is that clear?"  
  
"Yes, Miss Molen," the class replied en masse.  
  
She didn't anticipate any problems, but it never hurt to prepare for the unlikely.  
  
***  
  
The hoverbus ride made Marla once again rethink her decision to come along. Surely,  
had she known the terror that would be inflicted upon her by an entire class of eight-year-  
olds whose voices were lifted in chants like "Ninety-nine Tankards of Ale on the Wall" and  
"The Song That Gets On Everybody's Nerves", had she known the pain, she would have brought a  
blaster and burned them all down where they sat. Or stood. Or hung. She wondered how the  
driver - and Tess - stayed sane.  
  
Fortunately for Marla Quee's sanity, the hoverbus ride did not take more than  
forty-five minutes, although that was still entirely too long for her tastes.  
  
The students quieted down as the hoverbus arrived at the legislative building in the  
capital. Tess stepped off and went to find their tour guide to bring to the bus. "Better not  
to have anyone get lost before we find the guide," she had remarked to Marla.  
  
Whatever the teacher's reasons for leaving were, Marla was left as the only adult on  
the bus, a stressful experience even if the students were quiet.  
  
Danni seemed to notice this tension, most likely because Marla was grinding her  
teeth. "What's wrong, Mommy?"  
  
"Dealing with so many children is... stressful," Marla admitted. Well, it was close  
enough to the truth as far as Danni needed to know.  
  
Danni laughed. "Boys are a handful," she said in a mock exasperated tone, drawing a  
chuckle from Marla as well.  
  
"Good thing I don't have any," Marla replied honestly.  
  
Her daughter laughed some more, then turned back to say something to one of the  
girls she'd waved to earlier. Marla thought it was Rachelle, the girl from the swings years   
ago. Whoever it was, it gave Marla a few more moments of contemplation as she stared out the  
transparisteel window next to her.  
  
"Alright, class! We're ready to go now." The declaration by Tess Molen startled her  
out of her thoughts. She stood up and got in the single file line behind Danni, and walked  
out of the hoverbus, glad to be free of the cramped environs.  
  
Marla knew that Danni wasn't as excited as she might have been at, say, the lab of  
an astrophysicist like herself, but she couldn't fault her daughter for enjoying such a huge  
building with lots of things to read, even if it was a building full of politicians.  
  
Danni and her friends tittered about this and that as they walked around, looking at  
statues and plaques, paintings and sculptures, holodocumentaries and datapads, talking about  
things like how much older all of the stuff was, how some of the people represented looked  
like so and so. It was amusing to Marla as a few politicians passed by and endeavored to   
prove themselves useful, but were promptly ignored by the children, as they were just boring  
old people, after all. Their tour guide bumbled about, and whether he was normally like that  
or just acting that way for the children, Marla honestly couldn't tell.  
  
Surprisingly few of the displays mentioned anything about the galactic conflict  
between the Rebels and the Empire. That, Marla decided, was probably for the better.  
  
For once, she was dreading the passage of time, knowing that soon enough the group  
would be going to meet the Senator from Commenor, her one-time lover. Naturally, time passed  
seemingly faster than usual despite her not enjoying things one bit.  
  
Soon enough it was time to break for the midday meal, graciously provided by the  
staff of the building - or not so graciously, as Tess privately grumbled to her about the  
cost of the trip to the school. Marla expected Danni to eat with her friends and ignore her.  
Instead, she brought her friends over and all of them ate with the woman, much to her shock.  
  
"Are you Danni's mom?" a young girl's voice asked from the seat next to her.  
  
Marla was surprised to see someone sitting there. She hadn't heard anyone sit down.  
Perhaps, she decided, she was too focused on other things. "I am," Marla replied to the  
girl, not sure what else to say.  
  
The girl nodded thoughtfully. "My mommy says Danni is the bravest little girl on  
Commenor."  
  
This threw Marla for a loop. She was not aware of anything Danni had done recently  
to earn such a distinction. "Why does your mommy say that?"  
  
The girl blinked and gaped at Marla, as though it was a crime not to know what the  
reason was immediately. "Danni helped save me from a bad man."  
  
Belatedly, the woman realized this girl must be Rachelle, the one that Danni had  
saved after having a vision from the Force. Not that Danni knew what it was, or would  
understand it any more than she did now if she did know.  
  
The way Rachelle looked up at her with her wide blue orbs made her feel like the  
next words she uttered would be the most important she had said in a long time.  
  
As it turned out, she didn't need to utter them at all. Danni waved her hands at  
Rachelle, since she was sitting directly across from her friend. "Hey, Rachelle! Come on,  
we're talking about how smelly boys are!"  
  
Leave it to Danni, Marla thought as the young girl turned away from her, to be   
completely serious about school work and sit while eating her lunch and talk about how boys   
have cooties.  
  
***  
  
Danni came to the decision that she would never, ever want to go into politics  
independently of the wishes of her mother - though her mother would certainly be pleased  
upon learning of the development - and without ever coming face-to-face with one Castor  
Rodan.  
  
She even reached this decision while she was occupied with other things, namely  
joking about boys with her friends as they stood in line for over an hour. Stood being the  
key word as the line did absolutely no moving in that hour. Danni also knew there was no way  
she would ever want to meet and cater to so many people.  
  
The wait was made even more repetitive by Miss Molen's check up and down the line  
every fifteen minutes to make sure that nobody was missing. It was almost like fire drills  
back at school, except they didn't have to stay quiet the entire time. This made it less of  
an irritant, but not by much.  
  
Her mother was behind her in the line, so she didn't notice the increasing nervous  
look on her mother's face. Which, though Danni didn't know it, was probably for the better.  
  
A clamor erupted from somewhere in front of her. Either somebody was on fire, or the  
senator had arrived, and lack of smoke gave her the distinct impression that it was not the  
former.  
  
Rachelle, Christi, and Jenna were all excited, though she didn't know why and she  
suspected that they didn't know why, either.   
  
Danni rolled her eyes at them. From what she could see, it just looked like the man  
was a plain man, and he was only taking one still shot with each kid. None of the kids, not  
even Danni, knew anything else about him, which made it seem somewhat silly to her. Although  
she did have to admit that watching some of the smelly boys play nice with a famous man was  
good for a chuckle.  
  
"Isn't it exciting, Danni?" asked Christi, a dirty blond-headed girl who was just a  
bit too hyper. "We're about to meet a real senator!"  
  
"It sure is," Danni replied lamely, though her lack of enthusiasm wasn't picked up  
on by her friends. The four of them were only about five kids back in the line before they'd  
start to have their turn to meet and shake hands with the politician.  
  
She could see him then, increasing her earlier observation that he was a plain man.  
There was nothing remarkable about his features at all; if not for his status as a local  
celebrity, his average height, dark hair, and dark eyes probably could have gotten lost in  
any crowd.  
  
Marla leaned up to her ear and whispered into Danni's ear. "Danni, I'm sorry."  
  
Danni thought about what her mother might be sorry for as her friends took their  
turns meeting the man, and she could not think of a single thing.  
  
An attendant motioned for Danni to take her turn meeting the senator. She walked  
towards him with a slowly growing feeling of trepidation.  
  
"Hello there, young lady!" Senator Castor Rodan called out in the eternally phony  
tone of a politician.  
  
"Hello, Senator," Danni said politely.  
  
There was silence for a couple of seconds as Rodan looked at Danni curiously. "You  
look a lot like someone that..." A pause, barely noticeable, as his eyes flicked to Marla  
and then back to Danni. "...I knew once."  
  
Danni stared back at him curiously. She was facing away from her mother and could  
not see that Marla was glaring laser bolts at the politician. "I only look kind of like my  
mommy and my sister," she informed him innocently.  
  
"I see..." The phony smile was replaced by a steely look for a brief second before  
it returned. "Would you or your mommy like to talk to me?"  
  
Danni opened her mouth to say no, but found that her mother beat her to it. Marla's  
loud 'NO!' left no room for discussion.  
  
Another look passed between Rodan and Marla, unbeknownst to Danni or any other  
observer. Both knew it was a staring contest. The personality of one politician who made a  
career out of dominating others through either persuasive means or sheer intimidation,  
against an astrophysicist who generally hated dealing with people.  
  
Rodan turned away with a shudder right before Marla grabbed Danni and both stalked  
off in the exact same manner. He knew well that no force existed greater than a vengeful  
woman.  
  
At least there weren't any holoreporters around.  
  
***  
  
Silence was all that passed between Danni and her mother from the time they walked  
away from Castor Rodan until they were on their way home. Neither was completely silent to  
others; Danni had a couple of conversations with her friends, though her tone was detached,  
and Marla had a similarly detached conversation with Tess. Marla would later recall none of  
that conversation.  
  
Danni knew that her mother had something to tell her. There could not be any other  
explanations for what had just happened. Yet it frightened her somewhat to wonder at what  
the connection would be between what her mother had to say and that politician.  
  
The delay was caused by indecision on Marla's part. Indecision on what the best  
method would be to say what she had to say to Danni. In her mind she worked out scores of  
potential things to tell Danni, all different ways to express the truth. But none of them  
seemed appropriate to say to an eight-year-old girl.  
  
Finally she came to an answer on how to bring the subject up to Danni, right as the  
speeder pulled up outside of their residence.  
  
"Have you ever wondered who your father is?" she asked without preamble.  
  
Danni's footsteps stopped immediately, nearly causing Marla to run into her.  
"Sometimes," the girl answered. She started walking towards the house again, at a slower  
pace.  
  
A one-word response didn't help Marla much. She tried a different thought track as  
the two of them were let in to the house. "Do you know why I wanted to come along today?"  
  
"I think so," Danni said softly, after a moment of thought. Her effort to conceal a  
sniffle failed.  
  
The door slid shut behind them.  
  
She spun around and faced her mother, blinking tears out of her green eyes that ran  
down her cheeks. No longer hiding anything, the sobs came freely and she whispered,  
"Mommy... why didn't you tell me?" She ran into her mother's arms and was lost to tears.  
  
Marla reached down and swept her daughter up into a big hug. She made soft noises as  
she moved to sit down, like she always did when Danni was upset, even though now the girl  
was older. Usually it worked, but she knew these were hardly normal circumstances.  
  
"I wanted to, darling... I wanted to so bad, but I just didn't know what to say,"  
she told Danni when the girl had calmed down a bit. "What was I supposed to say? 'You have a  
daddy, but he doesn't know you exist, and wouldn't love you if he did'? I couldn't do that  
to you... or Norra."  
  
"He's Norra's daddy too?" asked Danni, her voice already growing hoarse.  
  
The woman nodded silently and brushed a couple of strands of hair out of her face.  
  
"Why?"  
  
As Marla thought of how to explain the story to an eight-year-old child, she was  
dimly aware that tears were coming out of her eyes. Strange that she did not notice sooner.  
  
"He said that he loved me, and I believed him," she said finally.  
  
Again, Danni asked, "Why?"  
  
Now Marla knew that this was not merely a child's curiosity causing to ask these  
questions. They were simple questions, but no less deserving of answers.  
  
"Danni, what did you learn in school about the Galactic Civil War?"  
  
To Danni, the question seemed so off-subject that she actually stopped crying for a  
couple of seconds while she thought about it. "Just that the New Republic beat the Empire  
thanks to Princess Leia and Han Solo."  
  
'At least they got the heroes right,' Marla noted dryly to herself. "They don't  
teach you this in school yet, Danni, but it was really hard to be alive during that time and  
not be involved." She paused to let her words sink in a bit. "For a long time the New  
Republic was just a Rebel Alliance, and nobody had any idea that they could really defeat  
the Empire. When the fighting got really scary... nobody knew what would happen. The Empire  
blew up a planet. For all we knew we might have been next. I was very frightened, and alone.  
The Senator there, he exploited my emotional distress." She started laughing, at the  
ridiculousness of it all looking back on it.  
  
Danni looked up at her. At least it looked like her tears had stopped. "So he has  
cooties?"  
  
This only made Marla laugh even harder, although between the guffaws the reason for  
her laughter shifted. "Yes, Danni. Yes, he has cooties," she said between laughs.  
  
"Then who needs him anyway?" the girl asked. Marla could feel her daughter shaking  
with silent laughter.  
  
Before she knew it, she was laughing again, too. Both of them laughed for quite a  
while, Danni sitting on her mother's lap.  
  
Once it died down, Danni looked back to her mother and said, "Just promise me that  
you'll tell me more about the Rebels when I get older, okay mommy?"  
  
"I promise, Danni," her mother replied, fully expecting Danni to forget about the  
promise.  
  
Marla counted her lucky stars that her relationship with her daughter had survived  
the paternal revelations. That night, for the first time in a while, she went to sleep fully  
appreciating everything she had in her life.  
  
Danni dreamed of an all-female contingent of Rebel soldiers beating up a bunch of   
stupid boys wearing Empire uniforms.  
  
***  
  
End of Tale Three 


End file.
